Thanks for the input. Sorry, I'm not so versed in these boards. I was hoping to get a "no brainier" type of response. So, I'll have to do a little work I guess.
Radio will power up only if L405 is in the circuit, but, of course, it will then just smoke because the L405 pad furthest away from the chassis is shorted to power some where. This pad, of course, is chassis ground, thus the problem.
*Would like to start with checking the protection diode. I cannot find d416. Can you point me in that direction?
I don't know, however, if a protection diode could cause this directly, or if it caused something else to fail which is causing the short. Final transistor and AM regulator legs have been lifted so as to eliminate them from the equation.